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This section was my workspace for philosophy essays between July 2006 and April 2008.
I call this "Prehistoric Kilroy" because it gave me practice for more
disciplined essays in Kilroy Cafe.Also see my philophical blog and Twitter feed.

Issue #41, 12/8/2006

Stupid Should Hurt

By Glenn CampbellFamily Court Philosopher

You may have seen the slogan on t-shirts and bumper stickers:
"Stupid Should Hurt." Indeed, stupidity does hurt—a
lot!—but this outcome doesn't necessarily change
the behavior. The nature of the disease encourages repeated
self-destructive acts.

Stupid is a mental illness. Although it isn't listed yet in
any diagnostic manuals, stupidity has certain unique
characteristics that are common to all of its victims. These
people aren't merely "dumb" but are deluded in a specific
way that arises from a fundamental problem of existence.

What is stupidity? It is not simply a lack of intelligence.
There are a lot of people who score high on objective
intelligence tests but who are in fact quite stupid in their
personal lives. Stupidity is more a reflection of
emotional intelligence.

Stupid happens when we fail to distinguish between facts and
feelings. The real-world gives us one thing, but we insist
on seeing something else, dictated by our inner needs
and wishes. When we skew our perception like this and then
base our behavior on it, reality usually comes along and
smacks us upside the head. Not all stupid acts result in
disaster, but you can't mess with reality for long without
it eventually biting you.

Each of us is not very far from the diagnosis ourselves. We
have all done stupid things, so we know stupidity from the inside.
If we have escaped from the syndrome, then it wasn't easy.
Stupid did hurt, and somehow we learned our lesson and are
less stupid now.

The opposite of stupid is "smart". Again, smart is
different than "intelligent." One can be brilliant by any
objective measure but not smart in the things that matter
most. Smart involves the real-world application of
intelligence, not just in the laboratory or on a
standardized test but in the field.

We sometimes use "smart" and "stupid" to refer to the
outcome of our actions, but this is misleading. We might say
that we were smart to invest in the stock market just
before it went up, when in fact it might have been dumb
luck. Smart and stupid are not external outcomes but inner
processes. They are emotional operating styles.

Think of the stupid people you know. What kind of things do
they do? They may fall for any "Special Offer" on TV. They
may tell their boss "exactly what I think" even if it gets
them fired. They may treat their children inconsistently,
then blame the children for behaving badly. They are rarely
in sync with reality. They just don't "get it."

At some basic level, stupid people fail to distinguish the
outside world from their inner world. They believe
inherently that reality is their servant, not their
master. We may recognize this in ourselves when we recall our
own stupid mistakes. (Can you think of one or two that you
have made?) In retrospect, we were deluded: The real world
was sending us a consistent message, but because we wanted
to believe something else, we ignored it. This is why we
now call the action "stupid." The disaster could have been
avoided if we had respected the obvious signs.

Stupid is different from an "accident," which could happen
to any of us. If you are driving prudently and another car
forces you off the road, that's not stupidity on your part.
If you are driving drunk, above the speed limit, without
wearing a seat belt, then that's a different story. If you
take unnecessary chances because you're feeling on top of
the world, then you have set yourself up for a crash. The
world doesn't care how you feel and is going to respond to
you exactly the same.

Smart is when we can separate reality from our feelings and
process them each on their own merits. Reality has its own
independent structure that is our responsibility to
investigate and understand. We are smart when we adjust
ourselves creatively to the structure we have discovered,
taking advantage of its hidden subtleties. You can't force
your will on reality; you have to finesse it.

We are also smart when we acknowledge our own feelings and
take them into account, but that doesn't mean we must act on
them or let them skew our perception.

Stupid is when we try to barge right through reality,
ignoring what it is telling us and expecting it to respect
our private wishes. Reality doesn't care about our inner
goals. Sometimes it gives us what we want, but that's just a
matter of random chance, not destiny or entitlement.

During our childhood, we are given a certain amount of
protection from reality. Our parents dole out rewards and
punishments that are often detached from the conditions we
must eventually face. Some parents, for example, may reward
their children no matter what they do. This sets the stage
for stupidity in adulthood, as the subject expects the
outside world to hand him the same unconditional reward.

The habits of stupidity can be terribly difficult to
change, especially in others. This is why we label some
people "stupid" as an overall systemic condition. They are
never going to "get it" because they have made a fundamental
philosophical decision not to. Their emotional needs are so
great and cause them so much internal panic, that they can
never accept reality the way it is.

The worst thing you can do for a stupid person is protect
them from their mistakes. Maybe stupid should hurt.
If it doesn't, then they're going to get even more stupid,
and they will be totally unable to deal with life when the
protection finally collapses.

That's not to say that simple "consequences" are always the
solution. Sometimes there isn't a solution. Sometimes, you
have to accept that this person is stupid and always will
be. The main tragedy here is when this person is a parent.
Then you worry that the stupidity is going to be dumped
from one generation to the next.

You often see him or her in Family Court: a parent who's not on
drugs and who isn't outwardly abusive, yet who just doesn't
"get it" about how to raise kids. They treat their child
according to their own vacillating emotional needs without
recognizing the child's own independent reality.

These children often end up in the juvenile delinquency
system, and there is not a lot you can do for them. Often
the best solution is to send the juvenile to a group home or
structured youth camp, where he can at least get away from
his parents for a few months. Then it's back to the land of
stupidity again.

Although self-destructive acts by others can seem comical
from afar—in a schadenfreude sort of way—there
is nothing fun about the syndrome at close range. When
placed in a vulnerable position, stupid people can be mean,
even sadistic, because they have to cover up their own
incompetence. They may seem like harmless dolts on the
surface, but you never want to put yourself in a position
where they have power over you, because this power is going
to be abused.

When you have a boss, client, parent, spouse or adolescent
child like this, that's when you find out what a tragic and
terrible disease stupidity is. You clean up one stupid
mess, but then there's another and another. There's never
going to be an end to it until the stupid person touches
reality himself is able to directly experience the results
of his actions as they occur.

Smart people, by definition, learn quickly from their
mistakes, but stupid people don't. They may have to hit
their head against a wall many times before they realize,
"Hey, this isn't a good idea." Even then, it's only that
particular wall they've learned about. If you put up another
wall, they'll insist that it shouldn't be there and repeat
their mistakes all over again.

“this article as well as the one entitled "Drug-Induced Personality Change" shed light on no subject other than the utter and complete mental retardation of the author and his fragile grip on reality.”
—gnotdumb 4/5/09 (rating=0)

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe.”
—Joe 8/20/10 (rating=5)

“I actually liked the essay. I am dealing with a stupid person and it is frustrating and traumatic for all involved. You may not think that stupidity causes tragedy, but especially when children are involved, tragedy is the only appropriate word.”
—Shelly 3/25/11 (rating=3)